Approaching job interview with social anxiety

I have a job interview in ten days, my first in four months with a background of lack of success in progressing with job applications. Face-to-face interviews are one of the biggest triggers of the social anxiety I have had for much of my life. This manifests increasingly as the interview date nears with heaviness in my stomach, nausea, lack of appetite and shakiness. During the interview, particularly as it is difficult for me to think quickly off the top of my head, it appears in speaking too fast and misfiring with answers. The lack of recruitment success I subsequently experience after interviews exacerbates the low confidence I have around employment especially. Can you suggest ways I can mitigate or reduce the effects of anxiety and low confidence during interviews?

One positive step I have made so far is to ignore my wish to get the thing over with as soon as possible (the flight response) by choosing a later date for the interview, to give myself more preparation time.

Answer:

Let’s celebrate that massive win, and take the spirit of creating safety into the next step. Your brain is telling your body to run and to run NOW – it senses danger. Your brain is doing exactly what it’s meant to do, which is good news! You have a normal, very functional human brain that is trying to keep you safe.

I’d like to paint your win in a different light – you paid attention to your need for space to create safety for yourself, even though your brain was saying, “GO NOW.” Let’s take creating space for yourself into the interview as well. You think that it’s difficult for you to answer questions off the top of your head. Do you think it’s possible that you don’t need to answer questions off the top of your head, and that there is more time available for you to respond? In what ways is this true? Before the interview, create a list of ways that you can invite space and time into your conversation with the interviewer from a lens of what might be possible – write a new story for yourself.
Finally, be sure to watch the Creating Safety Webinar and the Somatics with Victoria Albina webinar. They have so many useful tools you could use to find safety within yourself now and during your interview.
Come back to us with what comes up for you as you create your list in a submission titled “Interview anxiety pt. 2”.